Robert McKinley, Senior Analyst/Editor
Robert McKinley is an analyst of the payments industry on a daily basis for 32 years covering payment cards and payment systems from both the business side and the consumer side. McKinley is the retired founder and chief executive of RAM Research, CardWeb and CardTrak. In his prior position, McKinley has participated in more than 10,000 documented news media interviews, testified as an expert witness in two separate $billion+ U.S. anti-trust trials, testified before the U.S. Congress, assisted the GAO with paymentsIMG_2006 (1).jpeg reports, chaired numerous business conferences and provided C-Suite opinion to a multitude of Fortune 500 companies. In retirement, he has continued developing and funding digital media assets as well as contributing payments related analysis/content to a broad list of online publishers, including CardFlash, CardTrak and CardData. McKinley is also a national certified mentor with the non-profit SCORE organization with a focus on assisting Fintech startups. www.robert-mckinley.com

NCR nnounced announced ING-DiBa private consumer bank with over eight installed NCR Solidcore Suite for APTRA security software. Each of ING’s 1,300 ATMs has been equipped with this comprehensive protection that prohibits the introduction of unauthorized code on ATMs and protects them from insider attacks. NCR Solidcore Suite for APTRA proactively allows only authorized code to run, rather than reacting to known attacks as they arise. Specifically, Solidcore Suite for APTRA automatically creates and updates the inventory of authorized code and protects the system’s memory so that this code cannot be modified, deleted or hijacked – the process in which malicious code replaces authorised code with itself.

First Data has dramatically expanded its presence in Brazil with the launch of Bin acquiring solution. It has already begun its operations with MasterCard for credit, debit and installment payments, anticipation of credit receivables and other services. The Bin launch is the result of the operational agreement announced last January between First Data Brazil and Bancoob, the banking arm of Sicoob, the largest credit union cooperative system in the country. As part of this agreement, Bancoob is the formal acquirer that is responsible for provisioning the card scheme licenses and managing settlement of payments to merchants. Merchants will benefit from information-rich statements, an easy-to-use portal, a simplified financial reconciliation process and robust fraud monitoring. In addition to providing standard POS terminal options for capturing electronic payments, the Bin solution also features transaction capture via EFT, POSEFT and e-commerce.

Klarna payment provider has appointed Jon Kamaluddin to its Board of Directors. Jon Kamaluddin was international director at ASOS from 2009 to 2013 after having spent five years as CFO. In his role as international director, Kamaluddin led ASOS global expansion, including the U.S., Russia, China, Germany, and Australia, which helped ASOS grow its overseas sales to almost 60 per cent of its overall sales. He also served as a member of ASOS Board of Directors. Klarna’s Checkout service allows consumers to make online purchases using only their e-mail address and postcode, with no unnecessary pre-registration or credit cards needed. The Company also allows retailers to experience checkout conversion rates of up to 80%.

GlobalPlatform has qualified the Collis Compliance Test Suite for GlobalPlatform Open Mobile API, enhancing UL’s portfolio of compliance test suites for mobile device testing. This test suite has achieved qualified status under the GlobalPlatform Compliance Program. The Collis Compliance Test Suite for GlobalPlatform Open Mobile API implements the official test plan developed for the GlobalPlatform Compliance Program. The test suite ensures the compliance of a mobile device that implements the SIMalliance Open Mobile API test specification (version 2.05) for Transport API (version 1.0). This test specification specifies how to test the Transport API part of the Open Mobile API. UL is a GlobalPlatform (GP) qualified laboratory that provides test certification services to confirm a product’s compliance to GP specifications using GP qualified test tools. UL has been qualified under the GlobalPlatform compliance program for approvals testing according to GP configuration specifications.

GoCoin e-commerce payment solution designed to handle both bitcoin and alt-coins at checkout released its Click-to-Bill feature. Making it even easier for merchants to accept digital currency payments from their customers, Click-to-Bill allows merchants to create invoices and request payment via email or text message directly from their GoCoin Dashboard. Billing is also enabled through the GoCoin API for merchants looking to generate custom WYSIWYG forms.For SMS invoices, a customer receives an alert on their mobile device with a link to view the bill. Clicking it launches their bitcoin wallet, where they are prompted to select their preferred currency and submit the payment.

Meontrust Inc has joined the Fido Alliance to advance the global adoption of strong authentication. The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance is a non-profit organization nominally formed in July 2012 to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication devices as well as the problems users face with creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords. The FIDO Alliance includes more than 130 member companies, including Google, MasterCard, Microsoft, and PayPal, to name a few. MePIN plans to add FIDO protocol support into their products and to participate in the FIDO Ready™ testing program to help ensure the MePIN app, and other apps built with the MePIN SDK, are interoperable with the rest of the FIDO ecosystem.

Quisk, Inc. has been awarded a U.S. patent for enabling consumer activated security for a mobile payment system. Security is acknowledged as a top consumer concern for using a mobile payment system in research surveys from multiple countries.

Simon® announced today it will team up with prepaid and payments provider Blackhawk Network to offer an enhanced Visa Simon Giftcard® at select Simon malls, Premium Outlets® and Mills, and online at simongiftcard.com. The Simon Giftcard will also be made available outside Simon centers through Blackhawk’s participating network of grocery stores and other third-party locations.

Ryanair launched a new payment partnership with PayPal. Ryanair’s 86m customers now have the option to pay for their Ryanair flights using their PayPal account, ensuring even faster bookings on Europe’s biggest travel website. This is the latest in a long line of Ryanair customer improvements, including allocated seating, a second free cabin bag, a new website and app and a dedicated family service, with a tailored business product set to be unveiled in the coming weeks. This will help Ryanair develop its customer experience by making it even easier and quicker for travellers to book and pay for their flights online, expanded to the 152 million active Paypal accounts across the world,

Global Payments Inc. participated in today’s “Draft Day” at the newly-opened Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School in Midtown Atlanta. Global Payments Inc. is one of the largest worldwide providers of payment solutions for merchants, value added resellers, enterprise software providers, financial institutions, government agencies, multi-national corporations and independent sales organizations located throughout North America, South America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

SmartMetric added a Cortex processor to its biometric controlled credit, debit and identity cards allowing for faster fingerprint processing as well as the power to undertake a whole range of added processing functions.SmartMetric is moving forward with marketing its biometric card solution for the payments card industry with financial institutions looking at a better way to protect against card fraud. The company is targeting to complete 50 million cards over the next 12 to 18 months. SmartMetric is also preparing to release a fingerprint identification and access control card that will extend biometric security in a credit card sized device.

[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”0″ ihc_mb_template=”1″] DISH® accepted its first bitcoin payment today as the payment option is now available for all DISH customers through mydish.com. Today’s inaugural bitcoin transaction follows DISH’s recent announcement that DISH customers could pay their monthly bill with bitcoin starting in the third quarter. Austin and Beccy Craig, the stars of a…